


Whatever Souls Are Made Of

by miceenscene



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23096542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miceenscene/pseuds/miceenscene
Summary: Harvey, being who he was, wondered if the universe had somehow gotten it wrong. He’d always much preferred a good book to any sort of adventure, where his apparent soulmate seemed to leap into it every opportunity they had if the skinned knees were anything to go by. How could this person be his soulmate?
Relationships: Harvey/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Harvey/Player (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 87





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [loversandantiheroes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loversandantiheroes/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Some birds sing when the sun shines bright. Our praise is not for them…”

Harvey’s earliest memory was of getting into the car after a very exciting second day of preschool, bursting with enthusiasm to tell his mother all about the book he’d looked at during recess. He couldn’t very well read yet, but he’d looked at every page. Sooner or later, it had to just come to him, right?

Mother listened to his story then tisked and touched a hand to his knee. “Harvey, dear, what happened to you?” She pointed to the bruises polka-dotting the fronts of his shins. “Did you fall at recess?”

He shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know where they’d come from. They just showed up when they wanted to. Bruises and skinned knees did that sometimes.

It wasn’t until a few years later, four to be precise as Harvey was in most things, that he discovered the exact nature of his unusually stealthy injuries. He was sent to go wash his hands before dinner, partially for hygiene’s sake and partially to give his mother a moment’s peace. As he glanced up in the mirror in the thirty seconds since he’d last looked at his reflection, a terrible black eye had spontaneously sprouted under his left eye. Being seven, there was a moment of panic that was easily solved by rushing to find his mother, in the kitchen and pulling a casserole from the oven. 

She nearly dropped it when she spotted his new look. “Harvey!” She quickly shoved the chicken tortilla bake to an empty spot on the counter before hurrying towards him. “What did you do?”

“Nothing! I was just washing my hands!” The fact that she was obviously worried did nothing to absolve his own. Mothers don’t get worried, mothers fixed the worry. She examined his face closely for a minute and then all at once the worry disappeared, replaced with pursed lips and a carefully plain face. 

Harvey recognized that face, as more of a sign that something was being withheld from him than anything useful. He’d seen it a few times before. As expected, nothing more was said about his new injury. Even his father was carefully silent about it, Mother must have gotten to him first. So Harvey was extra diligent that night to stay awake and slip down the hall to where he could hear his parents talking in the living room after his bedtime.

“But do we have to keep even the idea from him?”

Father sighed; he did that a lot. “Irene--do you know what the statistical likelihood is of anyone meeting their soulmate? You’re more likely to be struck by lightning  _ while _ winning the lottery. Why bother filling his head with fairy tales?”

“It happens though. Just the other day, on the news, two teachers were soulmates, and they found each other.”

“And it was so rare that it was newsworthy.” He sighed again. “I just don’t want to set him up for disappointment--for always looking for this elusive soulmate when he can have a perfectly healthy relationship with anyone. A relationship doesn’t require soulmates to work, right?”

“Right.”

It was perhaps a little ironic when his parents divorced five years later after Harvey’s father met his own soulmate. But anyone could see that Greg made his father so happy that it was hard to be too mad about the upheaval--not that it stopped Harvey. He was just twelve, after all, and soulmates so far had proven to be nothing but trouble. All they did was bruise his shins and break his home, what use did he have for one?

Though it was difficult to stay mad at an idea, or at least it was for Harvey. Even as a young teen, he knew it wasn’t his soulmate’s fault that his parents hadn’t stayed together. Besides, it was far easier to be curious about the person whose injuries matched his own than to be mad at them.

Even up into middle school, the childlike injuries just kept happening. As people started noticing his quiet nature and his consistent bruises, they made the connection too and started making jokes. ‘That soulmate of yours seems like a real wild child, sport.’ ‘If you ever meet them, bet they’ll keep you on your toes.’ ‘They’ll keep you young.’

Harvey, however, being who he was, wondered if the universe had somehow gotten it wrong. How could this person be his soulmate? He’d always much preferred a good book to any sort of adventure, where his apparent soulmate seemed to leap into it every opportunity they had if the skinned knees were anything to go by. The one consolation he had was that at least the injuries didn’t hurt.

As high school began, the shared injuries calmed down. Harvey found some relief in that. At least he wasn’t soulmated to some sort of extreme sports fanatic, not that it really mattered because they’d probably never meet anyway. Though as he accidentally gave himself a nasty paper cut on the webbing between his thumb and forefinger, he couldn’t help but wonder--what did his soulmate think of him?

The bell above the clinic door had rang so much in just one day that around two o’clock, Harvey had briefly considered tearing it down. Normally, it was only in the dead of winter that so many people came in to see him, not the first day of Spring. Since he was approaching his slowest season, at first Harvey was glad for the excess business. But that quickly withered as he realized that no one was in his clinic actually on business. Oh, no. Every last person had come in to  _ gossip _ .

The first few were the usual suspects, Caroline, Jodi, Lewis. But by eleven, Gus had also stopped by, Pierre too. When Clint and Marnie  _ and _ Robin stopped by in the afternoon, Harvey finally had to admit that perhaps there was some truth to the rumor flying around town.

Reportedly, someone had finally moved into the abandoned farm at the edge of town.

It said a lot about Pelican Town that a single new neighbor was cause for wild and extensive speculation. Despite the great amounts of talk, by the end of the day Harvey had only gleaned a few actual facts. The new farmer was named Cassandra Grey, she was from Zuzu City, and she was the granddaughter of the old farmer. Nine hours of conversation, three facts. That seemed about right.

An extra patient would help, Harvey thought as he tallied inventory after closing that night. It wouldn’t make a world of difference, but it was certainly better than losing a--

“ _ Son of a-- _ ” Harvey swore as unexpectedly something very solidly slammed against his right shin. He dropped his clipboard and fell into sitting on the floor, reaching down for the injured limb and hissing. Rolling up his pant leg, he could see a rather large bruise already beginning to form. How on earth had he managed that? He was just standing there and there wasn’t anything… Oh. Another soulmate injury.

He ran a hand over the darkening skin, feeling a little relieved now.  _ Been a while since I heard from you _ , he thought, staggering up to his feet. The area throbbed so he grabbed an ice pack and headed upstairs to care for the injury, promising himself he’d finish inventory in the morning. As he was wrapping the swelling area in a compression bandage, Harvey realized something. His soulmate injuries had never hurt before. He wondered what that could mean, as he made sure his leg was elevated before he went to sleep.

The injuries quickly became a daily occurrence, much to his dismay and aggravation. Once Harvey threw his back out while sitting and reading through patient reports during a restful Saturday. Next day, large blisters sprouted across his palms--Maru, his assistant, had to treat those. She gave him very suspicious glances the whole time, but didn’t make any comment as to how he’d managed it. Bee stings and bruises and jammed fingers--what the heck was his soulmate even doing these days? It’d been years since there’d been anything to this extent.

But he wasn’t given a lot of time to ponder as Spring was still a busy season for Harvey with allergies and the last few flu stragglers. Otherwise he would have done some research about why now his soulmate injuries actually caused pain when they never had before. But he always forgot before he got a chance to. So he just continued to treat his undue injuries as they occurred throughout the rest of the season.

As Spring wound down, Harvey’s injuries lessened, thankfully, and the rumors about the farmer at the edge of town tripled. She’d been there all season, and no one had really met her besides Lewis and Robin. Pierre had a very boring story about her buying seeds from him. And Alex had some dubious claims that he’d spotted her across the town square once. But that was it. (All of this he heard from Maru second-hand, as Harvey was never the most popular villager if blood wasn’t involved. A status that he was both disappointed with and grateful for all at the same time.)

Then at the end of a very boring Thursday, Harvey got the answers that everyone else had been searching for. It was nearly ten o’clock in the evening, and he was still down in the clinic, doing the mind numbing work of digitizing his records. Maru had been out sick, and so he was stuck with scanning file after file so the on going project didn’t fall behind--they wanted to have the backlog scanned before summer’s end. He pulled a sheet of paper out of the scanner, turning to put it in the shredder.

Then suddenly his entire world reeled, and Harvey found himself in a pile of papers, staring up at the ceiling. He blinked a few times, letting the world settle back into a semblance of order before he slowly sat up. What in the-- Immediately, he had to blink several more times as blood started dripping into his eyes. Carefully, he got back up to his feet and went to investigate in the mirror, his head  _ pounding  _ with every step. 

He discovered a very nasty gash right along his hairline. Oh, great. As he quickly cleaned it up, he decided that, though it was fairly shallow, it would still require some sort of suture. Luckily, he had some surgical glue on hand, otherwise he’d be having to make a trip to the hospital in Grampleton. As he was covering the area with a bandage, he heard the front door to the clinic open.

“Dr. Harvey?” Linus called out. Harvey quickly checked to make sure he didn’t have any blood contaminating his clothes and then stepped out into the lobby.

“Yes, Linu--” Harvey stopped as in Linus’ arms was an unconscious woman that Harvey had never seen before. Rapidly, Harvey got a stretcher for Linus to put her down on.

He pressed Linus for answers, but the only explanation Linus could give before leaving was, “Found her down in the mines.”

So operating on very little knowledge, Harvey jumped into action. She was stable, if completely unconscious. Quickly he identified, among other more minor injuries, a very nasty laceration along her hairline. As he cleaned it, he realized it was fairly shallow but would still require some sort of suture. Since he wasn’t sure if she was allergic to surgical glue, he stitched her back up, five in total. 

As he covered the area in the same bandage he’d just applied to himself, he paused. Wait… She was wearing shorts, and just above her dusty work boots, on her right shin, he could see a green and yellow bruise a few weeks healed. Same size and place as his own bruise. He stared at her leg, his hands beginning to shake a little at the thought that perhaps this was his--

No.

Just a coincidence, surely. He… he… he wasn’t ready, for one. And for two, this woman was his patient. So that was a big No. Just no. All around no. Just a coincidence, he decided, focusing on disinfecting any other wounds he could see.

Not too long later, the woman’s eyes slowly opened--hazel, Harvey noticed and then was annoyed with himself for noticing--taking in the sterile clinic room for a moment. Then she swiftly inhaled and sat up, her curly brown hair sticking up around her head at odd angles.

“Whoa, take it easy,” Harvey said, gently touching her shoulder. She immediately shied out of his touch and glared up at him for a moment. He stepped back, folding his hands tightly. “Sorry, we haven’t met yet. I’m Dr. Harvey, the physician in town.”

She immediately broke eye contact, glowering now at the floor. “Cassandra Grey,” she replied after a few seconds of hesitation. “How did I get here?”

“Linus brought you in. He lives up north of Robin’s house in the mountains. He said he found you in the mines. Do you recall what happened?”

She touched the bandage on her head with a wince. “Bat swarm. Then I… fell,” she said in a very clipped voice. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she did  _ not _ want to be here. Not surprising; who would enjoy waking up in a hospital?

“Well, you’re lucky then to be walking away with just some stitches. You’ll need to come back next week so I can remove them, and I would recommend you take it easy in the next few days. But otherwise, I can release you. Just be careful in the mines next time.”

She glanced up at him and nodded once, then picked up her bag and left. For a long while, Harvey stared at the door she left from, feeling oddly disappointed. Well, at least he finally met the mysterious farmer, he decided, turning away to clean up. He could tell Maru that in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “When I saw you all alone against the sky--it's like I’d known you all along…”

“I always knew you’d go into medicine,” Harvey’s mother said, her voice bursting with parental pride. 

Harvey chuckled as he shut the trunk on his little Tercel parked in the driveway of his mother’s house. The weather was pleasantly humid for mid-May, but it was also early in the day--it could always become miserable later if it wanted. 

“You did?” he asked, grinning. He really hadn’t been sure himself till late high school.

She nodded and pulled his shoulder down enough to place a kiss on his cheek. She then pointed to a large bruise on his knee.

“I know you didn’t get that bruise on your own.”

She was right. Another soulmate injury, by his best guess--which wasn’t very good as he only had a bachelor’s thus far--it looked to be some sort of sports injury.

“Huh… You might be right.”

“Of course I’m right. I’m your mother.” Her smile turned tearful in the way that only a mother could, so he bent down and hugged her. She still sniffled, but rallied. “Now your father and Greg are going to take you out to dinner when you get to Zuzu, do you have the address where you’re meeting them?”

“Yes, I do. And I’ve written down what exits I need to take on the freeway,  _ and _ I have the atlas in case I miss them,” he assured her, cutting her off at the pass each time.

It earned him another teary smile and a pat on the cheek. “My sweet little boy. All grown up,” she sighed.

Only after taking a full roll's worth of photos of Harvey posing with his car and his new med school sweatshirt did she finally let him pull out of the driveway and get underway. She waved from the driveway and shouted, “If you find that soulmate of yours, you call me the moment you find a payphone!”

“I will!” he promised, waving out the window and driving away.

The idea stuck with him all the way to Zuzu City. Maybe his soulmate would be at his school. Or maybe they’d be his neighbor, or he’d bump into them getting coffee. The possibilities were endless. Still buoyed with excitement, Harvey reached the predetermined address without issue several hours later. He miraculously found a parking spot and stretched as he finally got out of his car. Watching the crowds pass by him on the sidewalk for a few minutes, a dawning awareness of just how vast the sea of consciousness was welled up about his ankles. Huh. The possibilities really were  _ endless _ .

The awareness kept growing as Harvey jumped into medical school head first the very next week. His lecture halls were huge, and he never ended up actually meeting his neighbors. Oh, sure, he saw plenty of attractive people at coffee shops throughout the city, but he was there for life-sustaining caffeination, not to meet new people. But as his first semester carried on at break-neck speed Harvey realized that even if his soulmate had been dropped into his lap wearing a neon label on their forehead, he probably would have politely helped them back to their feet and then returned to studying. He just didn’t have time for anything else.

However, the universe seemed bound and determined to not let him completely forget that his soulmate was out there somewhere. Harvey was up late one night--how late he wasn’t quite sure, somewhere between the fourth and fifth carafe of french press--studying for an exam on the endocrine system for the next morning. He reached the end of the chapter and forcibly blinked a few times, ducking fingers behind his glasses to rub away crust and the regret of putting off studying till the last minute.

Deciding to take a quick five minute break before jumping back in, he stood--ohh, so many joints cracking--and shuffled into his bathroom. He flicked on the light and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Not processing it at first, he reached for the faucet.  _ Wait _ . Then he did a double take of his reflection.

There was a bright red handprint on his cheek, so perfectly outlined he could practically see the lines on the person’s palm.  _ Whoa _ . He brushed fingers over the skin, but as usual there was no burn or pain at all. Even still, he grabbed a washcloth and wetted it down with cold water before dabbing it gently over the aggrieved cheek. It made the redness reduce after a few applications, and maybe perhaps it alleviated some of the sting for his soulmate. Probably not.

More than a little perturbed, he got the drink of water he’d originally come into the bathroom for. Obviously, he had no clue what precisely had happened, and it didn’t change the fact that he still had a test in the morning and three more chapters to review. So he set it aside and went to find more coffee.

Honestly, despite the fact that they lived in a town of less than thirty people, Harvey pretty much expected to never see Cassandra again--barring any other unfortunate accidents in the mines. But, surprisingly, it was less than a week later that the bell above his clinic door rang again and Cassandra stepped through.

As she headed directly for the front desk, he noticed there was a scrape on her forearm that he’d discovered upon his own when he woke up this morning. ...Coincidence was getting harder and harder to make himself actually believe.

“I got your bill,” she stated bluntly. “You didn’t charge me correctly.”

Oh, boy. Harvey straightened up, mentally preparing for battle. He tried his best to keep prices down, but at some point he did have to make a living and maintain the clinic. 

“If we need to set up an installment plan--” he started, trying to stand firm.

“This can’t be enough,” she interrupted, laying the bill on the counter between them.

That pulled him up short. “...huh?” he replied, intelligently.

“I’ve…” She huffed a quick breath, jaw clenching. “No doctor ever charges what you charged. Not for stitches and an overnight observation. What are you after?”

There was enough of an accusation in the question that Harvey threw up his hands in surrender. 

“Nothing! I--I mean… that’s what I charge. I know that money is tight for a lot of folks around here, but it’s important that they get quality medical care. I don’t want anyone avoiding the doctor because they can’t afford it.”

The stare she gave could melt steel, raze mountains, and see straight through him. But then her eyes dropped to the bill between them, and the molten core of her gaze softened. She took the bill back and just stood there for a few seconds in silence. 

“Sorry,” she muttered, glaring at the floor now.

“It’s fine,” he replied softly.

“I’ll send the check tonight.” And then she tore out of the clinic like someone was chasing her.

True to her word, the check arrived a few days later, a ‘sorry’ scribbled on the memo line. Harvey didn’t feel that she had much to apologize for, but again he found himself wondering if he’d see her again. 

The thought occupied his brain, filling in the empty spaces like an unwanted, repetitive song. It distracted him so much that, one morning about a week after the bill debate, he poured piping hot coffee directly on his hand instead of into his mug. He swore loudly and dashed his hand under a stream of cold water, hissing through his teeth the whole time. Dear  _ Yoba _ that hurt. He coated the area in aloe and covered it in a bandage, focusing more closely as he poured his coffee again and began his day.

It was about mid-afternoon when Cassandra walked into the clinic again.

“Hello,” she said solemnly, stepping up to the front desk.

“Hi,” Harvey replied. Admittedly, he was a little wary of where this conversation could possibly go. So far he was 0 for 2 on positive interactions with her.

“Some man named Lewis showed up on my farm this morning and told me I wasn't making enough of an effort to be friendly with the citizens of the town,” she stated, bluntly again. Harvey was beginning to think that perhaps she was just an exceedingly straight-forward person. 

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, that sounds like Lewis. ...He's big on the whole community atmosphere.”

“Right. You're the only person I know in town,” she explained in the same tone. “And I'm not good with people, I'll just say that up front, but here.” She pulled from her bag a single daffodil, amazingly uncrushed. Must have been one of the last ones of the season. As she handed it over, Harvey spotted a bright red burn on the back of her hand. The same spot that a bandage now covered his own.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the daffodil.  _ What a nice gift _ . Still smiling, he nodded down to her burn. “I can help you with that.”

She immediately retracted her hand, slapping the other palm over the area, and gave him a look that reminded him of nothing so much as a cornered animal. “It’s fine,” she said in a clipped voice.

Make that 0 for 3 interactions. But maybe he could salvage this one still.

“I mean, yes, it will be on its own, but if you apply some burn relief and cover it, it’ll heal faster. I imagine having an injury on your hands would be… inconvenient… for a farmer.”

Her jaw worked back and forth, and Harvey began to think she was going to turn him down. But then she muttered, “Fine.” 

He admitted her to the back room and quickly did as he promised.

“Free of charge,” he said once he finished with a small smile.

“Thanks,” she mumbled. Then she quickly jumped up and headed for the door like she couldn’t get out of there fast enough. But in the doorway, she stopped suddenly and turned around like she had to force herself. “Are you going to the chicken party?”

Harvey’s brow furrowed for a moment. “Oh. The egg festival? Uh, yes. I’ll be there.”

She nodded once. “Okay. Good. Bye.”

And then she was gone.

Harvey had discovered three things that afternoon.

One. Applying burn relief to her hand did make his own feel better. 

Two. There was a small circle of gold inside her otherwise hazel eyes. 

And three. Cassandra was definitely his soulmate.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know your thoughts below! Or find me on tumblr: [miceenscene](https://miceenscene.tumblr.com/)! <3, Kaitlyn


End file.
